May the Forces be with you
As a strategist, it's my job to help my clients outmaneuver their competition. If their business is undergoing change (and what business isn’t) we typically start by narrowing down the key forces at play, and developing a rock-solid thesis on how they are most likely to play out. It’s a powerful process, because it helps company leaders develop a compelling vision (which in turn drives strategy & innovation). It has a second benefit too, in that the process itself tends to build stakeholder alignment, and that can be particularly helpful if you happen to be raising capital.
I was recently interviewed by Marc Stoiber, for a blog series on pitching investors, and we spent a fair amount of time discussing how and why the ‘forces of change’ need to find their way into your story. If you’re in that stage, you might find his post interesting: http://unreasonable.is/are-global-forces-backing-your-investment-pitch/